The first thing you will need to do is get in contact with us to discuss your project, from there we will establish whereabouts you are in the development and/or production stage of your film and that will give us the information we need to be able to handle file transfers, grade and delivery as smoothly as possible. We can work on your project regardless of where in the world you are based, if there is a courier service that operates from your country to the UK, then we can grade your project! If you are UK based and would prefer us to handle file transfer in person, no problem at all, we can come to you and talk you through the process in person.

Below are some important guidelines to follow to ensure the transfer of files and conforming of footage is both efficient and most important of all, allows cross platform transfer so we can grade your film!

ADVICE AND HOW TO MAXIMISE THE QUALITY OF YOUR GRADE

Part of everything we do at Scarlet View Media is making ourselves available to advise you on how to get the best out of working with us, we are happy to do this, it’s all part of providing an excellent service and when handling something which can be as complex as cross platform colour correction and grading, it’s good to be up front and clear in what we need from you and also what you can expect from us in return. We will always offer our advice if we feel it is needed, however, we are comfortable that this is your project and we are here to get you what you want.

Getting Your Footage To Us:

This is hugely important! If we receive a well managed and clean timeline, with everything clearly labelled, conformed with consistent settings and no corrupted files, on a fast drive with everything we need, it’s going to make our job a hell of a lot easier and it’s also going to save you money! Whether you live around the corner or you are on the other side of the planet, we can work on your project but we ask everyone to adhere to the info and important steps listed below;

We operate on a Windows PC: We can however, read Mac formatted drives.

Please do not send us your Master Drive: We ask that you send an exact duplicate of your master disk and if possible, an additional drive for us to create a back up of your back up for you. You can never have too many back ups.

Please send USB 3.0 drives only: USB 2.0 is usually too slow to handle heavy processing of HD video files. In the event you only have USB 2.0 available, we will order two suitable USB 3.0 external hard drives for use as A and B drives, chargeable to you.

Do not rename folders or files differently to how they appear on your master disk: When you send your drive with all the project files and an XML of your timeline, please ensure there are no inconsistencies, this will cause the communication between your timeline, project files and XML to breakdown, rendering the timeline unusable.

Please provide a clean and clear timeline: We understand you may have offline media and guide tracks present in your master edit, it’s always a good idea to create a separate sequence, with a duplicate of your project, including only the timeline clips you want to be graded. We don’t want you to have to pay more than you need to because of confusion over what is included in the final edit.

Make sure to provide us with the two XML files of your timeline: One with the suffix “Clean” another with the suffix “Grade.” We will also need the source clips and files, a reference AVI, Quicktime or H.264 render of the edit in full and if applicable, a text file with notes about any special requests for specific clips, all on the same external hard drive.

Ensure your media is compatible on other platforms: If you have edited in Final Cut Pro, Avid or Premiere Pro, you may have animations, title sequences, freeze frames or nested sequences which are compatible only within that particular NLE. If you have any doubts, render these out as standalone movie files and include this information in your notes.

Please make sure every single file has a unique file name: Our Grading Suite needs to communicate with the XML you provide which links directly to your source files, if any source file names are the same, we may end up grading the wrong clips!

If you have scenes with subtitles or text, please do not include the text on the clips you send to be graded: Text overlays and subtitles should be the last thing you do, any text on clips which are being graded will most likely be affected by the changes made, meaning your once white text, is now no longer white!

If possible, please refrain from any grading or colour correction prior to sending us your project: This just makes our workflow more efficient and easier to manage. If effects or changes to contrast , colour or focus have been dialled in and rendered before we get the project, it can be impossible for us to make that shot match the rest of the grade. The “flatter” the footage the better!